I need to stay motivated to lose another 30 lbs!

kybakes96 · August 2018

I’ve been working out everyday and staying under my calorie goal, but the past few days I feel like my motivation has been so low and i hate it 😫! I need some friends that will help me stay motivated and keep me on track!

kommodevaran · August 2018

You don't need motivation - not in "that" sense (friends, support, inspiration); you're motivated to lose weight, but not to do what you're doing to lose weight.

Motivation comes and goes, it's not reliable at all! What you need, is good habits.

A smarter approach is thus to look at your plan. Weightloss is so simple ("eat less than you burn"), that when someone struggles, it's almost always that they do something they don't have to do. And conversely, sometimes they don't do what they have to do.

Exercise is a poor weightloss tool compared to eating less. But you're not supposed to eat below your target, you're supposed to hit it. Have you adjusted your calorie target and expectations after you have lost weight? (Weightloss slows down when you have less fat on your body.)

You haven't said you're not losing weight - I wrote this while assuming that was the problem, so just take it as follow-up questions if that is the case: Are you using a food scale for everything that goes into your mouth, the recipe builder if your cook, and valid database entries? (You may be eating more than you think.) Do you have cheat meals/days? (Unlogged intake can wipe out any deficit.) Are you eating back exercise calories? (Exercise burn is generally notorously exaggerated.)

Unknown · August 2018

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RSr09 · August 2018

One decision at a time. I like to follow 80/20 rule

Dhawa74 · August 2018

I got your back...lets go!

kybakes96 · August 2018

What’s the 80/20 rule?

kommodevaran · August 2018

nvm

competeagain · September 2018

80% of the work is done by 20% of the people

kommodevaran · September 2018

The the 80/20 rule is usually referred to as the Pareto principle - like @competeagain gave an example of. But in this context, it's "eat a variety of nutritionally dense foods for 80% of your calories, and do whatever you want with the remaining 20%".

arsoria24 · September 2018

kybakes96 wrote: »

I’ve been working out everyday and staying under my calorie goal, but the past few days I feel like my motivation has been so low and i hate it 😫! I need some friends that will help me stay motivated and keep me on track!

You got this 💪🏽 everyone goes through a slump, you’ll get out of it!!!

BecMarty14 · September 2018

What workouts are you doing? Are you bored of your routine?

mads_o86 · September 2018

I know exactly how you feel. I lost the first 45 pounds pretty easily (male, 42, starting weight 256 pounds). I was super motivated and thought this would be easy. I seriously plateaued at 215.

I just grew mentally tired and I think my body was tired too, from getting below maintenance calories. I had also recently added some weight lifting (just 20-35 minutes of heavy eccentric training 1-3 days a week) to my routine of running three times a week and I was just tired. So I started slipping. Not every day but a lot of days. I got to 210 but couldn't get below and started losing motivation.

I needed new motivation and a change (not everybody are motivated by routines, some of us grow bored with them).

At the end of July I was back up to 222, but a two week holiday had allowed me time to think and plan. The plan was very low tech. I'll get back to that.

First I took a look at what happened when I slipped up. If I couldn't make my target (2000 calories a day, no counting back for exercise) I would just skip the day. Sometimes that meant 3500-5000 calories. I needed a strategy for those days.

Second I was adding long runs (every fourth run) and I know from previous experience that they would make me tired and that 2000 calories wouldn't be enough on long run days. I made the conscious decision of getting 2500 calories on long run days.

And the low tech solution? On my fridge I keep a piece of paper and two pens, an black and a red one. Here I mark succes days (2000 calories/2500 on long run days) in black pen. But the red pen is for slip-up days. I get to keep the streak going if I stay under 2500 calories on a slip-up day. That allows me to go to social events or have a piece of cake or other unhealthy foods, but not go over board and eat 5000 calories on a day.

One last thing: I aim at losing just one pound a week, not more. This allows me the energy to keep working out.

Since the end of July I've lost 16 pounds, yesterday I hit 206, and have lost 50 pounds total. That's not the most important thing. My first streak was ONE day. Then I slipped up and had 4500 calories and had to put a line on my sheet and start again. My next streak was eight days, then a slip up and a horizontal line. Currently in on eight days, working to beat my record of 15.

See I'm a competitive person. I like competition and it's all about beating myself and my streaks. It's pretty fun for now. In a few months I might need to come up with something different, but for now it works.

I'm less than 20 pounds from my August 2019 ideal half marathon running weight of 187. That motivates me too. I want to beat my 2009 time

countcurt · September 2018

What are the reasons you want to lose weight. This is important because while motivation fluctuates, your reasons don't.* Focus on the reasons you want to lose weight, then on executing your plan.

You should also take some time to focus on reasons you don't want to lose the weight or weigh less. As your weight has come down, you may view things a bit differently and these factors may change. So knowing what your personal barriers are can be extremely helpful.

* I get that people sometimes change their reasons for wanting to do things, but that's a deliberative process whereby conscious decisions are made.

massivepocket · September 2018

I'm in a similar situation, but I will say this is the first that I'm finding my weight loss journey is actually going in the right direction, and that I'm not completely hating myself every day for it. The reason, I think, is a balance between short-term and long-term thinking.

Think Short Term: I'm not thinking about losing this 30lbs; I'm thinking about losing 2-3lbs over the next couple of weeks.

Think Long Term: I'm not thinking about the occasional blips, or the inevitable weight fluctuations - my weight loss graph is going generally in the right direction, and that's what matters.

I need to stay motivated to lose another 30 lbs!

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